(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data conversion apparatus used for TV broadcasting systems, and more specifically to a data conversion apparatus for converting HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) documents into information of a format suitable for the TV broadcasting systems.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Recent years have seen a variety of information providing services on the Internet.
Meanwhile, in TV broadcasting systems, a change has taken place in terms of the screen size, so that a standard screen with a conventional aspect ratio (4:3) and a wide screen with aspect ratio (16:9) are now both popular.
The standard screen and the wide screen have different numbers of pixels in horizontal (X-coordinate) direction.
Due to the above difference, a blank is generated when TV programs for the standard screen, for example, are played on the wide screen. A technique has been developed to extend the display image in horizontal direction so that the blank is deleted from the screen. With this technique, however, the display image is distorted in horizontal direction.
The above phenomenon is also distinguished in reproducing of multimedia data. Multimedia data is composed of character information, image information, control information, etc. Home pages provided by WWW (World Wide Web) servers in the Internet are one example of multimedia data. Here, the display image of the multimedia on the wide screen will generate a blank if the above conventional technique is not used; the display image will be distorted if the above conventional technique is used. This is because multimedia data is created for standard PC (Personal Computer) screens which have a different number of pixels in X-coordinate direction to wide screen televisions. With the conventional technique, characters and images, such as company product images, are distorted. With such presentation, correct information may not be conveyed. That is to say, the conventional technique is unable to make effective use of the wide screen.